Andre's Cube PC Build

[andrevautour]

Hey guys,

 

Hope everyone is doing well.

 

Some of you may remember my last build in a Corsair 650D.  I've been out of the PC scene for awhile but I am back now with a new build. 

 

Even back when I had the Corsair 650D build I found something very intriguing and appealing about cube cases and the concept of building a very small PC with a lot of power.

 

I had seen some reviews on the Silverstone SG08 a couple years ago and I really liked the look of the case back then. So I figured it was time to go ahead and pick one up and start a new PC build based around the SG08 case (I got the SG08 LITE)

 

The hardware will be a mix of some components I have left over from previous projects, but all the stuff that "counts" will be new.  Stay tuned for a complete list of hardware coming soon. 

 

Here are some pictures of the case, which I got a few days ago. These are just pictures of the front of the case for now, but I will take more in depth pictures of the case shortly.

 

Some of the hardware I have ordered already/will order soon and some I already have. I will have more in depth pictures everything in the next few weeks!

 

 

 

 

 

[waggythegeek]

Hey guys,

 

Hope everyone is doing well.

 

Some of you may remember my last build in a Corsair 650D.  I've been out of the PC scene for awhile but I am back now with a new build. 

 

Even back when I had the Corsair 650D build I found something very intriguing and appealing about cube cases and the concept of building a very small PC with a lot of power.

 

I had seen some reviews on the Silverstone SG08 a couple years ago and I really liked the look of the case back then. So I figured it was time to go ahead and pick one up and start a new PC build based around the SG08 case (I got the SG08 LITE)

 

The hardware will be a mix of some components I have left over from previous projects, but all the stuff that "counts" will be new.  Stay tuned for a complete list of hardware coming soon. 

 

Here are some pictures of the case, which I got a few days ago. These are just pictures of the front of the case for now, but I will take more in depth pictures of the case shortly.

 

Some of the hardware I have ordered already/will order soon and some I already have. I will have more in depth pictures everything in the next few weeks!

 

 

 

 

 

From what I can tell, it's quite similar to mine. Following. More deets would be great.

[andrevautour]

From what I can tell, it's quite similar to mine. Following. More deets would be great.

 

Here's what I have so far for specs. Some of this may get changed later on.

 

I have a Crucial M4 128GB SSD that I will use as an the OS drive.  there will be a storage drive too, but I'm not sure what that will be yet.

 

My sister has my 650D build at the moment, but I swapped out my Intel Extreme Masters Patriot memory from there, and I will use that here in this build (it will only be 8GB, though since it was 4X4GB and miniITX boards only have 2 memory slots) If the memory doesn't end up working out with the L12 cooler I may get something more low profile. I like the aesthetics of Mushkin Stealth.

 

For cooling I will use a Noctua L12 as long as everything fits. The memory will be close but Noctua says there is 43mm of memory clearance and the Patriot memory is 41mm so it should be do-able (I used the patriot memory with the NH-D14 on the other build it I think there was a few mm of space between the top of the memory and the cooler fins). I will also check that it does not overhang the PCI-E slot of the motherboard. I tried to install a L12 cooler on a mini-ITX board in the past and it did not work out because it was just slightly too close to the PCI-E slot. It was only by a matter of a few mm, though so if the CPU or PCI-E slot is positioned slightly differently on my motherboard it may work out. If not I will think of some other options.  I also have a Noctua NP-P12 case fan that I will use in the ceiling of the case.  

 

Update: I looked at motherboard I tried installed the L12 on before (it was a Mini-ITX Motherboard) and there is clearly more space between the CPU socket and the PCI-E slot on the Z79N board so it looks like it should be okay.  The memory may actually be a tighter fit. 

 

I think I will just do an i5 this time, since this PC will be for gaming only pretty much. Probably the 4690K.

 

 

Originally I was looking at this ST60F Silverstone. I liked this because it is 140mm instead of 160, which would give a nice bit of extra space in the case, but I ended up going with a Seasonic G-550 instead. I got the G 550 for $99 on NCIX with free shipping. The Silverstone was $106 but it was low stock so they would not offer free shipping.  Also, the Seasonic is 80 plus gold and the Silverstone is 80 plus bronze. 

 

I was looking at motherboards and I think the Gigabyte Z97N looks nice. I also looked at the MSI Z97I gaming but I don't care for the red on that.  Asus Z97I Plus looks good as well. 

 

I'm thinking PNY GTX 970 for the graphics card. I like the clean look of the cooler and I think a blower design with rear exhaust will be good for a small case. 

 

 

I ordered the PSU on monday and it will be here tomorrow. After that I just need motherboard, CPU, graphics card, which I will get soon. 

 

 

 

I know what I like aesthetics wise but I am open to suggestions about any of the hardware that I've mentioned. Feel free to let me know what you think! 

[imthewalrus]

From what I can tell, it's quite similar to mine. Following. More deets would be great.

 

Please don't quote the pictures, use -snip-. 

[andrevautour]

I starting putting what I have so far into the case today. I am heading out shortly to get the motherboard and CPU.

 

Seasonic G 550

 

 

 

 

 

Noctua NF-P12 for the case fan 

 

 

 

Patriot Intel Extreme memory. I have 16GB of this, but it is in 4GB sticks so only 8GB will fit into this motherboard.

 

 

 

This is a spare SSD that I had around from previous builds. I am going to use this for now. 

 

 

 

I was looking at what I had around for storage drives and I didn't really have much in full size drives, but I found this 750GB 2.5" drive. I'll use this for now and maybe add a larger storage drive later.

 

 

 

Here is a look at the case before I started disassembling it

 

 

 

This is the panel that holds a slim optical drive. I will not be putting an optical drive in here, so I'm planning to just leave this out and that will free up some space in the top of the case at the front for storing cables. 

 

 

 

At the top of the case there is a panel that holds a 120mm or 140mm fan. There is a removable (slide out) dust filter here and the entire panel is removable with screws if you will not be using a fan.  According to the reviews of the non-LITE version of this case, silverstone has the top fan setup as an intake.

 

 

 

 

The bottom of the case has a full cut out for a 120mm fan (from the PSU) and it is covered by a removable dust filter (this one has screws). If you look there is even a little divider to separate the PSU air intake from the graphics card bottom ventilation.

 

 

 

The front of the case has 2X USB3 jacks and HD audio. The HD audio cable is removable if you want to take that out to cut down on cables, but the USB3 cables are not removable. The power button is on the front of the case along with the HDD and power lights, but the reset button is one the rear of the case. Again, the reset button is actually a removable button so you can take that out too if you dont care about it. There is a cable that plugs into the power supply at the front of the case and it is routed along the top frame of the case into a power plug at the rear of the case.

 

 

 

My copy of the case has some slight bubbling in the paint on the top front corner, and a bit on the drive bay. 

 

 

 

 

At first I thought I would be able to slide the PSU in without removing the PSU mounting bracket, but it is too tight to fit in, so you have to remove the PSU bracket install the PSU then install the bracket. 

 

 

 

The case has a drive bay that will support 1X 3.5" drive and 2X 2.5" drives. This is also removable with screws and you have to take it out to install drives. 

 

 

 

My copy of the case had a small dent in the drive cage, it was easy enough to straighten out by hand 

 

 

 

View from the top 

 

 

 

This is the hardware that comes with the case 

 

 

 

PSU bracket 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was impressed that the drive cage includes nice large cable mounting points 

 

 

 

And there are also a couple at the front right where the optical bay panel goes

 

 

It may even be possible to store some cables up in there and then put the optical bay panel back in to hide them. there is no ventilation mesh at the front of the case at the top, so you won't see the cables either way, but if you wanted to install an optical drive you could do that.

[waggythegeek]

Lookin swag. Keep up the good work!

[andrevautour]

Okay I have some more updates.

 

There have been a few changes in my hardware plans due to some consequences.

 

I installed my two drives in the 2.5" spaces in the drive cage. Each of the drives has screws on one side only.

 

DSC05466 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

DSC05468 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

 

The 3.5" slot has rubber grommets that you install the screws through. the cage itself has 2 pegs that slide into rubber grommets when the cage is installed 

 

DSC05470 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

 

Gigabyte Z97N-WIFI motherboard

 

 

DSC05477 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

 

DSC05480 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

DSC05483 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

DSC05488 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

IMG_5292 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

 

Processor 4690K 

 

IMG_5293 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

 

Before I tidied up any of the cables 

 

DSC05490 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

I have decided that I may not go for an air cooler. I might use something like a corsair H60. This seems like an ideal solution here because there is a nice 120mm fan mount in the roof the the case. That way there will be more space around the CPU/memory area.  I have not decided yet. 

 

 

First startup 

 

IMG_5302 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

 

There are two different BIOS interfaces to pick from. The "classic" gigabyte UEFI bios and the newer Smart Tweak mode. Personall I prefer the color scheme and layout of the classic mode. 

 

IMG_5304 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

IMG_5305 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

IMG_5307 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

After it was up and running I cleaned up the cables a bit. 

 

DSC05495 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

DSC05499 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

DSC05500 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

DSC05501 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

DSC05502 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

I noticed that there is actually screw holes for a 180mm fan as well as 140 and 120. Now that I think of it I think I remember reading that the regular version of the case comes with a silverstone 180mm fan in the top. 

 

DSC05503 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

 

Now here is the first thing that I did not anticipate.  I was thinking I would be able to run a full length graphics card, but when I got the PSU and motherboard installed I noticed that the PSU actually blocks the PCI-E slot.  This is where getting the silverstone 140mm small form factor PSU would have been good, because then I would have been able to install a full size GPU.  Luckily I measured the space between the rear of the case and the PSU and there is almost 7.5 inches, so I ordered a Gigabyte GTX 970 "mini" with only one fan. This also happened to be on sale so that is an added bonus. I imagine this will run hotter and louder than a regular card, but I decided to go with it anyway. 

 

DSC05504 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

 

Unfortunately I did run into another error. The PC will freeze up and eventually blue screen sometimes, and when you start it back up it will not see the startup drive.  If you leave it off for a bit and start it again it will see the drive again, but this does happen again eventually.  It seems to be that this looks like a faulty SSD. The drive that is in there is an older crucial m4 that has been sitting around for a few years, so I guess it is not too unbelievable that it is faulty. 

 

So I'm looking to get another SSD. I am looking at the Intel 535 and Samsung 850 pro (these are also on sale at NCIX right now). 

 

Overall I am  really pleased how it turned out.  

 

IMG_5328 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

DSC05506 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

DSC05507 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

 

 

 

I have had it running and I installed some benchmarks and stuff on it. I haven't done too much graphics related since it is just intel graphics at the moment, but I have ordered the GTX 970 and it should be here Tuesday or Wednesday, so I will have another update at that point. 

[andrevautour]

hey guys

 

my GTX 970 "mini-ITX" version arrived a few days ago 

 

DSC05513 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

DSC05512 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

DSC05519 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

DSC05516 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

DSC05518 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

DSC05517 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

DSC05515 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

DSC05520 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

DSC05532 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

 

 

 

the 970 is not too loud and the performance is good. i left unigine valley running for 24 hours straight and the highest the gpu temperature got was 80c.   the fan will get to about 70% on auto speed but bad. 

 

I ordered an SSD to replace the faulty crucial m4 (im running on a mechanical hdd drive temporarily) so i will move to that when it arrives. after that the CPU cooler is pretty much the last thing i have in mind.  still deciding between a corsair AIO unit and a noctua L12. 

 

i will post some benchmarks later on. 

[mikeeginger]

Awww it's soooo small 

[blackadder]

^ i know its so cute! Console killer with teeth? The half size 970 looks like 750ti. What a killer little gaming rig. I wanted to build a small pc like this, then i bought a phantek pro... Noiceee.

[hearthofsin]

nice build man go for the AIO tho. in small spaces they are super good compared to air cooling because of the limited space.

[andrevautour]

Awww it's soooo small

  

^ i know its so cute! Console killer with teeth? The half size 970 looks like 750ti. What a killer little gaming rig. I wanted to build a small pc like this, then i bought a phantek pro... Noiceee.

  

nice build man go for the AIO tho. in small spaces they are super good compared to air cooling because of the limited space.

thanks, guys.

I know what you mean with AIOs and small paces. I was just thinking about the the noctua l12 because it provides airflow to the motherboard, and the AIO does not.

also i have always had good experiences with noctua quality and I've seen a few AIOs with annoying pump noises.

[waggythegeek]

Awwww the little baby 970 is so cute!

[andrevautour]

hey guys,

 

I am going to tidy up the cables a bit soon and install a CPU cooler, but for now heres a few pictures of the outside and grpahics card side of the case. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and here is a video. i will probably do another better video when i get the cooler installed and cables tidied up. 

 

[andrevautour]

hey guys,

 

i have not installed a CPU cooler yet (i ordered an NH-L12 and it should be here on monday or tuesday) but i did spend some time tiding up the cables.

 

i will have some better pictures of the entire build when i get the cooler installed and i think i will do a video talking about my experiences building in this case as well. 

 

 

[andrevautour]

 

 

[andrevautour]

Noctua NH-L12 is here!

 

[andrevautour]

My Noctua NH-L112 arrived! here's some pictures from the installation process.

 

 

Out of the box it comes with the 92mm and 120mm already installed. I decided to try it with just the 120mm first and see how the performance was, because I dont really want the 92mm.

 

DSC05600 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

DSC05605 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

DSC05606 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

DSC05601 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

 

Hardware 

 

DSC05608 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

 

I disconnected the motherboard connects and kind of left all the stuff in it's place if possible. in the SG08 there is not a lot of space between the edge of the motherboard and the PSU mounting plate/HDD bay so I had to move some cables in order to get the MB out.

 

DSC05621 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

 

Noctua gives you a kit to install the cooler without the backplate, for miniITX MBs that don't support backplates, but i was able to install the normal Noctua backplate on this board. 

 

DSC05623 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

 

here it is setup for the way I was orignally planning on setting up the cooler, but as you will see that way did not really work out 

 

DSC05622 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

 

here is how much memory clearance there is.  the memory shown here is patriot viper 3 and that is 41mm tall. Noctua says you have 43mm of memory clearance with this. I see about 5-6mm between the top of the memory heatsink and the fins of the cooler.

 

DSC05624 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

 

if you install it this way you will get the most amount of space between the GPU and the cooler. 

 

DSC05627 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

but it also overhangs over the edge of the motherboard on the memory side. this is what caused an issue for me because this part of the cooler was too close to the PSU. 

 

DSC05629 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

here is my cables for the front panel buttons/LEDs. on the SG08 the reset switch is on the back, so if you want to connect that you will either have to find a nice way to route it, it just have an extra cable coming from the back. 

 

DSC05634 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

 

this is the way I ended up installing it. with the ends of the heatpipes facing down at the GPU. there is less space between the GPU and the cooler this way, but overall there is a more even amount of space on all sides of the cooler in the SG08.

 

DSC05635 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

 

DSC05636 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

 

this is what i originally did with the restart cable from the back. i just routed it straight down the back of the GPU and then under the motherboard. for some reason I was thinking this might be too hot, so i changed it to routing along the bottom of the GPU instead of the top. 

 

DSC05640 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

 

 

So, here it is - a view from the top with the top fan removed.

 

DSC05638 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

Here you can see the restart cable at the back

 

DSC05649 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

DSC05644 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

DSC05643 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

DSC05651 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

DSC05650 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

DSC05642 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

DSC05616 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

DSC05617 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

DSC05615 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

DSC05613 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

[Lystfiskern]

Its a really cool little box Andre   Personally I would use the additional fan to gain more airflow to the board. How are temps on the baby 970 holding up?

[andrevautour]

hey, thanks! i was just wondering how it would be with the bottom fan. i will probably put it in to see how much difference it makes. 970 temps are okay. it usually is around 75-80 during gameplay. it will get to 85 if you run fur mark.

 

update: temps for GPU are more like 70c in game now with the new CPU cooler 

[andrevautour]

Its a really cool little box Andre   Personally I would use the additional fan to gain more airflow to the board. How are temps on the baby 970 holding up?

 

i was curious myself how the L12 would perform with the 92mm fan installed, so i went and added the fan. i had to remove to L12 to get the 92mm fan on since there was not enough space to get it on when it was installed, so I reapplied thermal paste while i had it off.  here is OCCT temps at stock CPU settings with 1 fan and with both fans.

 

stock settings 1fan by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

stock settings 2fan by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

i think it looks alright with the 92mm installed. the Y splitter fan cable does add extra length/bulk to the fan cables though Untitled by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

[X_Rated_Box]

NIce!

[Sanctuary2808]

That is one sexy mini-ITX case.

[Lystfiskern]

Looking at your min avg temps in particular it comes evident that the addition of the 92mm fan really works wonders.

However previous temps with the single fan were suspiciuously high. Could there have been a seating/thermal problem initially?

 

Im considering a topflow cpu cooler for my new Z97 build. Like the looks of the Cryorig coolers...only problem they are hard to come by in Norway, and the Customod coloured accent pieces yet not available for the C1. Might also go with the staple Noctua or maybe sort to one of the designs from BeQuiet.

[andrevautour]

NIce!

 

 

That is one sexy mini-ITX case.

 

thanks guys

 

Looking at your min avg temps in particular it comes evident that the addition of the 92mm fan really works wonders.

However previous temps with the single fan were suspiciuously high. Could there have been a seating/thermal problem initially?

 

Im considering a topflow cpu cooler for my new Z97 build. Like the looks of the Cryorig coolers...only problem they are hard to come by in Norway, and the Customod coloured accent pieces yet not available for the C1. Might also go with the staple Noctua or maybe sort to one of the designs from BeQuiet.

 

i think there was a little too much thermal paste on there the first time. when i added the 92mm fan i cleaned the cpu and the base of the cooler then reapplied a smaller drop of paste.  not sure what makes the most difference the new paste or the 92mm but the 92mm does blow directly onto the CPU base area so it makes sense that it helps.  it's not too loud, either. if you leave the fans on PWM they are practically silent most of the time. the curve for speeding them up as the temps go up is pretty mild. even with both fans at 100% its not bad.

 

what kind of a case are you using for the new build? the be quiet looks nice. reminds of of a mix of the C12 and C14. cryorig looks good too. and you can't really go wrong with noctua.